It’s Thursday night, and for those of us who live in “The Gush” also known as Gush Etzion, the Etzion Bloc, it’s time to brave wall-to-wall bodies at the nearest Rami Levy. This chain of supermarkets goes by the name of its founder, whose prices always beat the competition. Levy built up his empire from humble beginnings and is generally thought of as not only a canny businessman, but a good person.

After the Fogel Massacre, Levy pledged to feed the surviving Fogel children until they reached adulthood. He does stuff like this. And it isn’t about promotion, because he doesn’t flaunt these good works. The media finds out. They report. He isn’t bragging, Rami Levy.

A good guy.

Rami Levy is also committed to hiring workers irrespective of race, creed, or nationality. This policy doesn’t always make his customers happy, but it’s Rami’s way or the highway. He has the best prices. Money talks. Nobody walks.

That is until yesterday, when all Hell broke loose in a Rami Levy supermarket in Mishor Adumim. Two Arab youths walked into the store and stabbed two customers. This happened because it’s normal to see Arabs in Rami Levy. They know they won’t be discriminated against in Levy’s stores. And anyway, it’s a free country. So no one thought it was the least bit strange when two Arab youths walked into the store and grabbed a shopping cart.

They were just shoppers. Until they weren’t. Then they were terrorists.

Rami Levy was questioned by the media. They wanted to know if he would continue to hire Arabs and allow Arabs to patronize his stores. He said:

We hire workers regardless of religion, race, or nationality. We have laws in Israel. Just as I wouldn’t want France or other European countries to say they won’t hire Jews or allow Jews to enter, I wouldn’t want that here.

Now, Israelis are tough. But they’re human all the same. And a lot of the time, panic expresses itself through Israeli shopping habits.

If the weatherman predicts snow, for instance, there will be a run on bread. Which is silly, because the amount of snow we get is minuscule. But that’s how it goes.

So Thursday night? Rami Levy in the Gush is always packed to the brim with shoppers, many of them Arabs. The Jews are getting ready for Shabbos. The Arabs are getting ready for their own Sabbath, which falls on Friday.

This is a photo from May 8, at the Rami Levy in the Gush. A typical Thursday night.

Here is a photo of this same supermarket, taken by fellow Efratian, Irving Goldenberg, tonight, a Thursday night, at 8:30 PM, prime shopping time.

Rami Levy in the Gush, a day after the stabbings at the Rami Levy in Mishor Adumim. (photo credit: Irving Goldenberg)

No Jews shopping for Shabbos. No Arabs shopping for their Friday Sabbath. Empty.

The Jews? Well, we’ve had several “incidents” in our ‘hood, of late. Dalia Lemkus, the three boys, the man who was stabbed the other day, the two that were run over “by a car,” the list goes on.

Jews don’t want to shop in a store where Arabs work and shop. Because Arabs want to kill them.

The Arabs? Why aren’t they in Rami Levy in the Gush at 8:30 PM on a Thursday night? Maybe they’re afraid the Jews will finally grow a pair (or several).

Which is why the Jews should have turned out in HUGE crowds on a Thursday night at 8:30 PM at the Rami Levy in the Gush.

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A third-generation-born Pittsburgher on her mother’s mother’s side, Varda moved to Israel 36 years ago and is a crazy political animal who spams people with right wing political articles on Facebook in between raising her 12 children and writing about education as the communications writer at Kars for Kids a Guidestar gold medal charity.